Distinctively Visual The Drovers Wife
The Drovers Wife – The Distinctively Visual
- Story creates a clear sense of the Australian bush and the experience of the wife
- There is a sense of pride in her husband being “an Australian” and Lawson has created a visual image of what this means
- Bush life is depicted as being incredibly harsh
- It is lonely, stressful and dehumanising
- The reader visualises the bush as parched and barren through images like “dried-up looking children” and the wife who is described as a “gaunt, sun-browned bush woman”.
- Lawson uses short and truncated sentences as in “No ranges in the distance.” and “No undergrowth.” to emphasise the lack of any aspect of the picturesque or interesting
- The repetition of “No” further exaggerates this negative image
- It is a bleak picture, which is stated directly in “there is nothing to see and not a soul to meet”.
- The experience of the bush wife reflects the harsh and unpleasant nature of the bush
- Lawson uses the image of “gallows-faced” men to stress the danger strange men present to a woman alone
- The violence and wildness of the bush is mirrored in the language of the children
- The children are not used to contribute to the readers visual picture of the bush
- Repetition of the onomatopoeic “Thud, thud” as the snake is killed helps create the image of the situation
- In describing the death of the snake, the detailed commentary is given immediacy by the present tense
- The death of the snake is presented without sympathy as the snake is used to symbolise the peril of the bush – a place that kills innocent children
- There are a number of techniques that create a visual of the stress the woman is under
- Her dialogue reveals her state of mind
- Her comment “Come here at once when I tell you” is familiar to struggling parents everywhere and hints at disobedience
- The line “all her girlish hopes and aspirations have long been dead” is infused with despair
- Living in the bush has stifled and thwarted
- Story creates a clear sense of the Australian bush and the experience of the wife
- There is a sense of pride in her husband being “an Australian” and Lawson has created a visual image of what this means
- Bush life is depicted as being incredibly harsh
- It is lonely, stressful and dehumanising
- The reader visualises the bush as parched and barren through images like “dried-up looking children” and the wife who is described as a “gaunt, sun-browned bush woman”.
- Lawson uses short and truncated sentences as in “No ranges in the distance.” and “No undergrowth.” to emphasise the lack of any aspect of the picturesque or interesting
- The repetition of “No” further exaggerates this negative image
- It is a bleak picture, which is stated directly in “there is nothing to see and not a soul to meet”.
- The experience of the bush wife reflects the harsh and unpleasant nature of the bush
- Lawson uses the image of “gallows-faced” men to stress the danger strange men present to a woman alone
- The violence and wildness of the bush is mirrored in the language of the children
- The children are not used to contribute to the readers visual picture of the bush
- Repetition of the onomatopoeic “Thud, thud” as the snake is killed helps create the image of the situation
- In describing the death of the snake, the detailed commentary is given immediacy by the present tense
- The death of the snake is presented without sympathy as the snake is used to symbolise the peril of the bush – a place that kills innocent children
- There are a number of techniques that create a visual of the stress the woman is under
- Her dialogue reveals her state of mind
- Her comment “Come here at once when I tell you” is familiar to struggling parents everywhere and hints at disobedience
- The line “all her girlish hopes and aspirations have long been dead” is infused with despair
- Living in the bush has stifled and thwarted